Working time Directive: conciliation fails

For the first time since the entry into force of the Amsterdam Treaty on 1 May 1999, no agreement could be reached at the conciliation stage of a piece of legislation. Parliament and Council failed to find a compromise on three points of the Working Time Directive: the opt-out, on-call time and multiple contracts.

Since there is no agreement, the current directive, dating from 1993, remains in force, though the Commission can draft a new proposal from scratch. Such new legislation would need to take into account the rulings of the European Court of Justice on on-call time. (See Eurobriefs 162, 159, 151, 143, 141, 137, 135, 130, 128 & 116).